20 November 2013

thirteen | november writes :: on my table

 Before I was married, before I ever lay eyes on my husband, before we were bound in matrimony and our lives entwined forever by the babies we made, I knew that a table would be central to the family life I hoped to create someday. In my often tired-of-the-rat-race daydreams, I wistfully imagined a long oak table, a sturdy remnant of a forgotten age, one that smelled of old wood, woven with trains of grain criss-crossed across the top; a farm table, a monastery table, long enough to seat 6 or 12 (or 20).

As I have always loved to cook, coupled with a deep desire to know humanity better, I knew very early on I would need a table to host the armies of folks I imagined traipsing in and out of my house, through summer harvests and breaking bread, through the holidays, sharing pies and jams and turkeys. Something to feed the small troop of boys I knew I would someday have.

Sometimes I imagine that The Table is an actual archetype, never imagined or thought of by Jung, but exists in the dreams of childbearing women across the world: the center, the hearth, the place where all is set aside and all are fed.

Despite my deep dreaming desire for the table of all tables to fill my farmhouse of a home, we instead have a medium-size table sold and bought, years ago, from a big box store. But it does its duty well. It is the place of writing and painting, of babies making messes, of boys older, working hard on thoughts and dreams and work. On any given day it holds several plants, a bowl or two of fruit and a pile of breadcrumbs and small milk-rings from glasses drunk.  And it fits, ever so perfectly, into our tiny urban homestead inside the vast metropolis in which we live.
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excuse the rambling.
 joining in with amanda, write alm, and other fabulous folk
for november-prompt-a-day

7 comments:

  1. I dreamt of a farmhouse table so similar and have a very similar high end store bought table instead as well. It still has become a central place for food, family, crafts and work. It's who gathers to the table that really matters. :) Lovely post!

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  2. So beautiful! The essentials of your dream table are there still.

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  3. the table is definitely the equivalent of grand central station for my family - people and their things and creations passing through, gathering together, it's where the living gets done.

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  4. I remember walking around a beautiful high-end shop in Bath years and years ago and seeing such a mythical table, and thinking that's it, that's what I want. A table like that with my children all around it. I never got the table, but the happiness, the children, the shared meals and the time spent together I did get. And that is good enough for me. I'm thinking now maybe it needs a plant or two though...

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  5. Such evocative writing ... I could totally picture your future dreams ... and who knows you may get the big table and house in the country yet
    xx

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hello there! I love it so when you leave a bit of a note to let me know how you are and what you are thinking. I always love to hear about the things inspiring you and moving you through your day.

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